For the past decade, U.S. policymakers have indulged the notion that U.S. security interests would “pivot” from the Middle East to the Pacific. Kurt Campbell, the godfather of the “pivot,” was serving as the assistant secretary of state for the Middle East in 2011, when the Obama administration wanted to conceal the humiliation of closing Camp Victory in Iraq, which symbolized our defeat there, by adopting a policy of “containment” against China. Campbell is now the “Asian czar” on the National Security Council, one of several anti-China hardliners in key positions in the Biden administration. More
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This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Melvin Goodman.